Fifty Sentences
by whitealmond
Summary: For all the misery it had tossed them, Fortune proved it wasn't entirely heartless or that it at least had a sense of humor when it threw them both together. 50 sentences for Lee and Gaara, from the 1sentence Livejournal community.
1. Part 1

**Fandom: **Naruto**  
Pairing: **Rock Lee/Sabaku no Gaara**  
Theme set:** Epsilon**  
Rating:** PG-13**  
Warning[s]: **Excessive use of semi-colons and dashes... some allusions to sex but I don't think they're great enough for an R rating… also, a hint of MPreg? ^__^**  
Author's Notes**: Started this over a year ago, just polishing it up now. Written right after the events of Gaara's tangle with the Akatsuki, so some sentences may not mesh with the most recent chapters. Also, my utterly original title is deserving of worship.

Fifty Sentences, Part I

**#01 – Motion**  
How ironic that he, the Lotus of Konoha – verdant, tireless, and perpetually in motion – could be stilled to wonder by the sparsest of movements: a touch to the cheek; a tilt of the head; a slow, ponderous blink from dark-ringed eyes...

**#02 – Cool**  
"I don't _care_ if you weren't detected, Gaara, skinny-dipping with Lee to 'cool off' was _not_ an acceptable course of action," Temari snarled.

**#03 – Young**  
There is an aspect of Gaara that never really grew older, never really grew up... it is something his lover is unable to fully defend against, though he may try (and try, and try): when Gaara wakes with wide, rigid eyes and voices murmuring in his mind, Lee can only hold him, wishing hopelessly for the pain to bleed into him instead.

**#04 – Last**  
For as long as he could remember, Lee had been _last_ – last in class, last in popularity, last to graduate, last to become a jounin; it was wrong, but he couldn't help feeling just a tad smug at finding true love before everyone else (granted, it had taken years and their earliest encounters had nearly ended fatally – but still!).

**#05 – Wrong**_  
"_It's not _wrong,_ it's just unprecedented!_" _Lee groaned, gripping his head as if he could wrench out thoughts of a certain Kazekage like so much water from a sponge.

**#06 – Gentle**  
Lee hadn't meant to do it; he hadn't known, he hadn't _thought_ – how could he have known that Gaara, the _Kazekage_, embittered survivor of malicious demons, deceitful relatives, criminal psychopaths, and incalculable violence, could be broken by a gentle touch?

**#07 – One**  
"One – only one – only you," Lee whispers, because Gaara needs to hear it, yes, but more importantly because it's true, it's true – it's the most honest thing he knows.

**#08 – Thousand**  
"If I don't stop thinking about Gaara in an hour, I will run a thousand laps around the village," Lee told himself sternly; one hour later – "Damn it."

**#09 – King**  
Gaara, so used to being treated like a king – a slightly feared and extremely respected king – by his own people, somehow couldn't help but feel annoyed the first – and only – time Lee tried to call him "Kazekage-sama."

**#10 – Learn**  
In contrast to his other friends, Gaara listened intently and asked questions when Lee tried to teach him something; _a quick learner and a dedicated student, _Lee thought proudly, and then wondered what that odd, fluttering feeling in his chest was.

**#11 – Blur**  
After trapping him at the waist with sand, all it took was a strategic movement from below to dwindle yelps and protests to sounds of a more agreeable nature; and Gaara, smug in victory, knew that there was more than one way to stop a blur.

**#12 – Wait**  
"How long have you been – Gaara, I told you not to wait if I wasn't out by six – you're the Kazekage, you shouldn't have – why did you–?" Lee spluttered; with a look that suddenly made Lee feel worse than opening all eight Gates and living to tell about it, Gaara asked, "Do you really not know why?"

**#13 – Change**  
"Hey Gaara, have you seen my suit?" Lee asked, rooting around the closet and completely naked save for his boxers; "I saw it on you yesterday," Gaara replied obliquely, eyeing the muscles of Lee's back, "You should pay more attention to where you leave your belongings."

**#14 – Command**  
It was interesting how Gaara usually ignored the powers, privileges, and decorum of the chain of command when it came to their relationship, then picked them right up again when he felt like they'd give him some sort of advantage; if Gaara thought that ordering Lee around the bedroom was going to work because he was Kazekage, he was going to be quite disappointed!...  
maybe...  
sort of...  
well, if it did work, it wouldn't be because he was Kazekage!

**#15 - Hold**  
Lee knew that the heart he held belonged to a man the world had once abandoned; a man strong enough to bear the past and courageous enough to trust again – and Lee would show him, he would prove it – Gaara would know that he couldn't have found a better person to give it to.

**#16 - Need**  
An arm around his back, his forehead leaning on a firm chest, strong heart sounding to reach his own – bandaged hands clench around his hips and he growls and grips that shining hair, sinks his teeth into a corded neck, desire to devour and be devoured seizing every nerve when Lee _hits _it, strikes and sends him straining to pitched and fevered heights and Gaara gasps, he has always known _need_, known it since he was an infant, but he hadn't known, hadn't ever known, it could be like this –

**#17 - Vision**  
He'd thought that Sakura-san, whose features whispered of flowers, spring, and softness, had been beautiful; years later, with Gaara (_claret hair and sand-pale skin_), Gaara alone in their room, sliding robes off with undecipherable eyes, Lee realized what a vision truly meant.

**#18 - Attention**  
Tired of having to raise his voice, Gaara experimented with alternate methods for drawing Lee's attention; challenging Lee's abilities and conjuring naked Sand Bunshins worked best overall, he found.

**#19 - Soul**  
"I didn't even know I had a soul... some days, I'm still not sure," Gaara muttered; and Lee, who forgave as naturally as the sun shone, felt a slow, terrible emotion enter him...

**#20 - Picture**  
"Ugh, they're so sappy it's disgusting," his siblings grumbled; out of every photo they had of Gaara, the only ones in which their brother didn't look stone-faced or murderous had been taken with Lee.

**#21 - Fool**  
Gaara had willingly opened his heart to possibly more pain than he'd ever felt, and Lee had fallen in love with the shattered leader of a foreign village who harbored more demons than the one that had been torn out of him; they knew they were fools, and didn't care.

**#22 - Mad**  
Gaara's subordinates thought he was crazy to begin with (this decision merely cementing their conviction and fear), and everyone already knew Lee was insane and unreasonable, so surprisingly, aside from their closest friends and relatives, barely anyone objected to the news of their – er – relationship.

**#23 - Child**  
She dynamic kicks in the door to his office, all shining red hair and blazing round eyes, shouting louder than Lee as he races to thwart her for the second time this day; Gaara merely smirks as she slips from his grasp with gleeful shrieks, Lee pelting after her and jabbering rapid, profuse apologies.

**#24 – Now**  
First it had been his siblings, and then it had been his village; now, Gaara watches the sleeping man by his side, hope and another, subtler emotion clutching his heart – thinking maybe, just maybe –

**#25 – Shadow**  
"Naruto taught me," Gaara says mildly; Lee can only stare, shock giving way to visceral anticipation, at the ring of burning, black-rimmed eyes focused on him with singular intent.


	2. Part 2

**Fandom: **Naruto**  
Pairing: **Rock Lee/Sabaku no Gaara**  
Theme set:** Epsilon**  
Rating:** PG-13**  
Warning[s]: **Excessive use of semi-colons and dashes... some allusions to sex but I don't think they're great enough for an R rating… also, a hint of MPreg? ^__^**  
Author's Notes**: Written right after the events of Gaara's tangle with the Akatsuki, so some sentences may not mesh with the most recent chapters. Also, my utterly original title is deserving of worship.

Fifty Sentences, Part II

**#26 - Goodbye**  
There was barely time to spare, but he still took two seconds to sear rust-red hair and smoldering eyes into his memory: if Lee was going to die, he'd be damned if Gaara wasn't the last thing he saw.

**#27 – Hide**  
Lee had never been very good at hiding his emotions from anyone, be they his enemies or his closest companions – so how could his feelings towards a certain temperamental redhead have eluded himself for so long?

**#28 – Fortune**  
For all the misery it had tossed them, Fortune proved it wasn't entirely heartless (or that it at least had a sense of humor) when it threw them both together.

**#29 - Safe**  
He was emotionally shredded and psychologically unstable; he'd tried to murder his friends and destroy his village; he'd crushed his arm and leg, almost ended his dreams for good, and nearly killed him twice – and Lee felt absolutely safe in his presence.

**#30 – Ghost**  
"He's not real, he's not real, you're safe, it's just a nightmare," Lee whispered – but Gaara, staring into the darkest corner of their room and clutching hard enough to draw blood, would not move a muscle til dawn.

**#31 – Book**  
"_Hey Gaara,__  
Here's Konoha's 'good faith' gift for this year - I would have sent another crate of ramen, but Sakura-chan said that ramen for three years was getting old and told me to pick something else, so I was thinking about something you might appreciate more than ramen (yeah, I know, impossible), and that perverted monk and Kakashi-sensei said maybe you would like this..._"

Gaara looks up from the Hokage's letter apprehensively and picks up the dubious tome that accompanied it; noticing the illustration of two men enthusiastically engaged in a complicated but appealing position, he turns the page, suddenly intrigued by the thought of surprising Lee...

**#32 – Eye**  
Ever since he developed it, the Third Eye jutsu has served Gaara well; not for the first time, he is grateful for retaining the power that allows him to endure a diplomatic meeting by watching Lee undress in the bedroom.

**#33 – Never**_  
He would never form bonds, never exist for anyone but himself, and never care about anyone but himself_; thanks to Lee, Gaara can also cross out "never be loved" from the list of things he'd thought would always be.

**#34 – Sing**  
Lee sings much like how he does everything else – loudly and relentlessly; the first night he showers in Suna, it's enough to drive the entire village mad, but – like an omen of things to come – Gaara really doesn't mind.

**#35 – Sudden**  
A sudden, screeching halt behind him blows past gusts of air accompanied by spluttered greetings and billowing dust devils; Gaara does not turn from where he watches the desert horizon, but his lips twitch in an imperceptible smile.

**#36 – Stop**  
"If you stop, I won't be responsible for my actions," Gaara snarled; a funny thrill tingled up Lee's vertebrae as he – grinning – stopped.

**#37 – Time**  
They are shinobi – the chance of time for themselves is flimsy and undependable, while the risk of death is ever present – so now, right now (_that meticulously honed body, wired to strike as fatally as any cobra _–_ twisting and shuddering and unraveling beneath _him), Gaara is going to make sure Lee feels _every second_.

**#38 – Wash**  
"Here, let me get that," Lee says; Gaara watches as his lover takes his hands, and gently wipes the stains away.

**#39 – Torn**  
"Your muscles are torn; you are not walking _anywhere_," Gaara growls – so saying, a whirlwind of sand catches Lee mid-stride, sheathing him to the neck to float him back to the village, grains slapping over his mouth when his protests do not subside.

**#40 – History**  
"Don't worry, it's all in the past," Lee declared, trying to banish Gaara's uncertainty through sheer force and stubbornness; "History is history – we learn from it, grow stronger, and look to the shining future with the invincible fervor of youth – together, we can accomplish anything!"

**#41 – Power**  
The desert reared into a hurricane before Gaara's will, winds shrieking like a thousand nails dragged across stone; Gaara's eyes burned like pinpoints of teal in the howling sand, and Lee, beside him, felt his heart surge along the rising tumult – _Why, _he wondered, _do I feel, so weak– ?_

**#42 – Bother**  
Gaara's aides had learned this well: if you valued your life, short of an emergency, you never, ever, _ever_ bothered the Kazekage when his favorite taijutsu master was visiting.

**#43 – God**  
Gaara was glad that Lee was enjoying it, but he'd have rather heard his own name trembling from those lips...

**#44 – Wall**  
Naruto had smashed some important ones, and living for others had allowed him to (cautiously) dismantle others, but the walls enclosing Gaara's heart were labyrinthine; they might never be fully breached, but Gaara knew that Lee would willingly spend the rest of his life slowly taking down stone after stone after stone...

**#45 – Naked**  
Gaara stood over Lee's prone body (limbs akimbo, a silly grin on his face and blood trickling out his nose); if the Kazekage had known that he could incapacitate Lee merely by dropping his robes, he'd have tried it a lot sooner.

**#46 – Drive**  
"Lee," Gaara growled, ripping open the curtains that separated him and his nauseous bodyguards from his grinning, sweating lover, "The next time a horse is injured in a foreign country, we are hiring a new carriage."

**#47 – Harm**  
The Chuunin who'd shouted a rude term at Lee is wrapped in a bristling sand cocoon – anger tells him to clench his fingers and Lee shouts and screeches behind him, but Gaara hears most clearly an echo from long ago – _if the one you admire is insulted, you become enraged_.

**#48 – Precious**  
"You're precious to me," Lee says, more serious than he's ever seen him; and Gaara, who not long ago would have been broken or at least enraged by these words, swallows – and whispers the same.

**#49 – Hunger**  
Gaara watches, fascinated as Lee inhales his sixth bowl of neon-red curry in just as many seconds, greatly anticipating the boost of energy it would give him...

**#50 - Believe**  
Gaara has never been one for hopes and fantasy – the terrors that crept in his mind, the sorrows that rang in his soul, were all that could ever be relied upon – but as he clutches Lee's hands, Lee reassuring him (_cheerfully, tenderly, even at the end_), he desperately grasps for it: the belief that they will be together again, one day.


End file.
